Since its bidding tournament why not allow the Torch then? You might get a few more people.

-and no, I will never stop beating this drum. It’s a silly thing to impose, especially since you’ve excluded the top tier players.

Heh... I guess my post was to subtle.

My question about full game play was not directed specifically at you Battlefrank.
Thanks for answering it anyway.

Battlefrank: ...

It's been a while since I messed with it. Does the CrazyMod affect full game play?

I'm full of ideas regarding my eventual entry. I plan to include an image along with a compelling recommendation to have the next SC follow closely as possible the game play capabilities of the Frontier Elite series. Braben's latest endeavor Elite 4 will most likely prove to be vapor ware. All other games in the genera: Independence War, X1 2 3, Colony Wars, X-Wing, Freespace, Wing Commander, Etc. all have fallen short of the gamers lust for a truly open ended and realistic space simulation game. Nearly every forum of the afore mentioned games contain countless posts of people saying things like: "Why can't I land on any planets?" "Why can't the transition from ground to space be seamless?" "The scale is totally unrealistic!" "Why doesn’t planets gravity affect my ship when I'm out in space?" There are a plethora of space games out now that boggle the mind with endless menus and tedious game play elements that don't truly hit the mark. Good graphics are not enough. Imagine a totally revamped 3D Starflight, with SC and Elite game play characteristics. Done correctly the game could become legendary! Perhaps I’m nuts. A fool can dream, can’t he?

Anyway, I'm sure that if there is to be another Star Control, we can kiss the top down 2D game play goodbye. 3D is the future.

UGH   

There's been a few threads in which I've posted regarding the awesomeness of Frontier Elite.
I was wandering around you-tube when I found this video: Frontier Developments - Elite 4

ROFL

Are you talking about this one?
I always liked that version and plan to use it in my UQM promo video. I have been looking for a better version with little success. I'm thinking that I will just try to clean it up and improve the quality with special software like Adobe Audition or something.

The ban stays.

Total BS

I'll play if there's a spot available. Also intrigued because I saw no mention of a Thraddash ban.

Not bad.. I like the file attach ability. Has potential. I agree that your site needs to have something new to offer.

As a summery of my thoughts regarding this thread; which is a good discussion IMHO, a final thought. The actual topic aside: Here’s an example of one reason I hate Roger Ebert’s reviews.
The 1993 film, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, in my opinion, was one of the most hilarious and entertaining films ever made. 
In Roger Ebert’s review of the film, at no point does he say anything about actually liking the film or suggesting that the reader view it. Overall his review is rather generic and matter of fact. He describes the formula of the film, with no statements of appreciation or detest. To someone who’s never seen the film, there’s not much in his description that would suggest that seeing this film would be a good idea. A grave mistake, I think.

The review IS in Ebert's 3 star category, but I feel that's not enough.

I see your point. But using that logic you can quantify the entire sensory input of our brains.

[and]

I don't understand what your friend Steve means by saying that. A painting cannot have an infinite number of colors. Paintings have a pretty finite resolution also (and especially film). This is pretty much falls into the same argument as medium vs. mechanism.

You're not considering the fidelity of contour and shade. A painting can have an infinite number of colors even if the painter used only a few since you’re dealing with an analog medium. There is no rasterization either. The detail does not reduce to blocks when you zoom in. It’s all in how the paint is used. Keep in mind that while I understood my friends point, I didn’t agree. Art is still art even when reduced to a spectrum of dialectic scale.

That was medium and mechanism btw. Certainly a different subject from the whole analog VS digital argument. I'm sorry you didn't understand my point entirely.

[So then the process, as well as the product, can be defined as… ART.]

Great topic! Here’s my two cents:

Analog VS Digital

    Back in the early 90’s I remember having a heated discussion with several friends regarding this exact subject. It all started when one afternoon, we were taking turns playing Earthworm Jim2. Although dated at this point, the game was filled with imaginative graphics and really good music. We had just reached the level where Jim becomes a blind cave salamander. In this part of the game the surrounding walls are covered with slimy tentacles. Much to my delight the background music was Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It fit so perfectly. I remember saying: “This game is a work of art!” My friend Steve, (A talented artist himself) was insulted by the idea. The argument soon spread amongst the whole group, the basic gist of the discussion being about the difference between analog and digital. At the time, graphic technology was still fairly limited. The 24bit (256 levels of RGB) game didn’t exist yet. Steve’s contention was that pictures made by or with computers could never be art because they lacked the infinite definition of the analog. A painting for example, could have an infinite number of colors, whereas digital works were limited with a finite fidelity. Immediately I began arguing the question.”How many colors and pixels do you need before a digital picture can become art?!” I vehemently argued that at the 24bit level, one could barely tell the difference between blue 231 and blue 232. Randomized dithering could further negate the distinction. Resolution is another matter altogether. Is it possible to create a work of art tiling a bathroom? Is the arcade game Pac-Man a work of art?

Webster’s online dictionary: (Art – Noun)
1.   The products of human creativity; works of art collectively; "an art exhibition"; "a fine collection of art".
2.   The creation of beautiful or significant things; "a good example of modern art": "I was never any good at art".
3.   A superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation; "the art of conversation"; "it's quite an art".
4.   Photographs or other visual representations in a printed publication; "the publisher was responsible for all the artwork in the book".

Medium and Mechanism

    There’s no rational argument describing a limitation to medium regarding art. Paint, stone, glass, ice, wood, pottery, metal, paper, clay, plastic, noodles, pixels and perhaps hundreds more if one thinks about it. The art of storytelling, music composition, photography, film and dance and perhaps a thousand more in reference to the performance of “Art”. Closer to the main subject of the article is mechanism. (The process by which art is appreciated.) Ebert’s position that art requires “authorial control” is a strong argument. Art does require a beholder. Does that mean that the design of the interaction can’t be an art form also? In further tacking down mechanism; think about the simple fact that art is not always visual. Perception of music is of course auditory, and there’s no contention that sculpture is not a form of art. How then would a blind person appreciate it? Touch! Then there’s yet another mechanism! “Tactile perception” This is interesting because it requires interaction. What part of the sculpture will our blind person feel first? The paradox continues when thinking about appreciating a photograph, sculpture or painting. The interaction comes in the form of where our eyes look first and last. Can a book be a work of art? If photography can be claimed as an art form, then why not literature? Or is it? What about non-fiction versus a poem? What about a which-way book?

    I fear the rabbit-hole has no bottom on the subject. I think that Ebert is proven wrong by entry number 3. -“A superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation.” In reference to the art of game creation: So then the process, as well as the product, can be defined as… ART.

Sorry if some of my thinking fizzles out there at the end. I'm tired of writing so I'll stop here.

Yes I have .nrg and .iso's of several 3DO games including Star Control 2.

Disclaimer: The ISO's in this archive are only available to people who already own the games. This data is provided for archiving/backup purposes only.

3DO_ISO's